Qatar buys LATAM stake

SANTIAGO, 30 December 2016: Qatar Airways bought a 10% stake Wednesday in LATAM, the largest airline in Latin America, the Chilean-Brazilian company said.

The investment, first announced last July, amounts to 60.8 million shares at a price of USD10 each, LATAM said in a statement.

The airline — the product of a 2012 merger between Chile’s LAN and Brazil’s TAM — said Qatar’s arrival as a stakeholder “represents a unique opportunity to develop a long-term relationship and explore new opportunities to connect with Asia and the Middle East”.

The cash from oil- and gas-rich Qatar’s flagship airline comes just in time for struggling LATAM, which lost USD219 million in 2015 as Brazil, its main market, struggled through a deep recession.